Billy Thorpe - Dallas, Texas - 27th May 1979 (4:3 edit).

[@MizzRT]

Wowwwwwww I just watched my Dad at 32 rocking his ass off trying to get his foot in the US market after already having been 1 of the biggest stars Australia had ever seen, starting at the wee age of 10! ...a few decades later he returned to Aus to reclaim his bona fide Rock & Roll legend status from the Country that loved & truly appreciated him 🇦🇺 🎸

[@RobertNicholson]

I first saw your dad perform at the Sydney Trocadiro when he and the ‘real’ Aztecs were the support act for Screaming Lord Sutch circa ‘64. I was there, with a few high school mates from Crows Nest Boys High, to see Screaming Lord Sutch.It was the kool thing to do at the time. I was amazed at your dad’s performance. I walked out a forever Billy Thorpe fan. I last saw him perform at the Doyalson RSL Club. Although I was booked to see his acoustic show at Lozette’s Kincumber, it sadly never eventuated. Be so proud of your dad. he was a gem.

[@derek6600]

I believe he had the best version of Over the Rainbow' ever. I still play it today.

[@lelandsklar6363]

Hey Rusty, Loved your dad. This was one of the best times of my life playing and hanging with him.

[@dimethaltryptamine1]

I 1st saw him in 1971 at Sydney Town Hall & he blew my mind at 13. He looked like a Viking with the double plat & the church organ & guitar work was simply amazing. What a concert, what an artist & what an iconic Aussie!~ Still love Thorpie!~

[@offaxisdude]

cat was badass !!!

[@chuckmiller6390]

14 years old, heard Children of the Sun on WDVE Pittsburgh PA. This song and original album the actual one I purchased impacted my life, now on CD I still crank it up. Took me weeks but finally found out the artist song and album. Ran to my local mall in central PA and picked up my copy. Then a mystery occurred that only in 1987 did I discover the answer to. None of my friends were able to buy the record for themselves. For years I made cassette copies of the original album. The notes in the CD Children of the Sun Revisited explained that the record company had only managed to produce a total of 500,000 copies before it went bankrupt and the music rights were tied up all those years. Rock on in the next universe until we all meet and become Children of the Sun.

[@allen1755]

I thought we already are for some that know the truth

[@opeyonecanopy]

1980 I discovered Billy Thorpe and Children of the Sun! I was blown away by this album and still a go-to in my music selection.

[@h-townsinner9053]

Billy Thorpe never really got the acclaim or fame that he should have gotten. This album and performance were epic. Truly an amazing musician. RIP 2007

[@whatsupguys8547]

So much competition in '79 plus Mtv was just breaking out

[@thardin69]

Agreed

[@mattboland5221]

Probably due to competing genres at the time- punk & new wave was hitting the scene at that time. Black Sabbath released an album in 1978 which the critics trashed. (Today its given the credit it deserves) The 80's finally opened up for Medal Bands where we experienced an explosion of bands across the scene. Medal ruled that era. After that were the 90's where Alternative Rock & Grunge hit the scene.

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

It was/is because of those darned "Sesame Street" Subliminal Messages.......Listen, closely, to these Lyrics, if dou yare....."Sunny Days....Keepin' Sun Children, away.......Can you tell me how to kill, how to kill those Sun Children, please....etc." Oooooh. Scary, said Count Floyd.

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 paying attention, obey and trust authority...they live

[@jillsommerville7828]

Saw billy at sunbury in the 70s awesome, he had the place 'ROCKIN' the best ever! You must be so proud of your Dad ❤️

[@rellek64]

Wow 41 years ago I was there Grew up listening to this awesome Aussie with the Aztecs to see him in Dallas wasn't much of a biggie living in Fort Worth. one of the best musician great show remember it like it was yesterday R.I.P Billy

[@robertespenschied8339]

The legendary Billy Thorpe on guitar\vocals, and the equally legendary Leland Sklar on bass.

[@etmeyutub]

This needed a big screen in the back of the stage with visuals, video, light show, space scenes. The music is so epic. Deserved an epic stage show.

[@thhomasmarks]

i had a hard time staying with it.. but I'm dog exhausted right now, maybe later

[@markshark7521]

No, only needed Billy n th band, he is th show! F th other rubbish 😎

[@etmeyutub]

Still would have made it even better. His music deserves the visuals. @@markshark7521

[@cypressarea]

He was great at the Jam in 1979 in the Cotton Bowl. In Dallas. I WAS 18.

[@cassimu3431]

Wow, that's why it really hurt loosing him before his time.

[@rosecarey8522]

I remember in 1970s,my cousins turn me on to his music,,,I'll never forget going down the highway, in 1975 Camero,,,listening to 8track,its was electrifying,,, I have a muscle 1995 5.0 mustang now ,,,,I will be playing this.

[@greenjjr1962]

Wow! McFarlin Auditorium is a great place to see an artist of Billy's caliber! I had the fortune of Seeing Billy live later that year at "Farewell to Texas Summer" in the Cotton Bowl. Amazing Show!

[@markmilewski8289]

I don't envy too many people but I envy you for that

[@DavidWilliams-xl5cx]

I was there!! What a GREAT concert. I believe there was not one person in the audience that wasn't totally baked.

[@hippydippy]

Lee & his massive rig! He just talked about that & recording "Children" the other day on his new YT channel. Great performance by all!!! That voice too. Very Cool.

[@lat-roc9733]

Children of the Run is a mad coked out master piece. Ambitious to say the least

[@hippydippy]

@@lat-roc9733 Children of the "Run" is a mad coked out master piece? First it's "Sun" not "Run" & second... If it's drug influenced, it's more than likely acid, not coke, but nice try. LOL!

[@lat-roc9733]

@@hippydippy maybe I was under influence. And it was coke i you read his book

[@redfishradical]

WHAT A TRULY AWESOME GIFT!!! One of my best friends in high school in the mid-70s turned me on to this album which I STILL think is a classic for the ages! I went through 3 copies on vinyl...awesomely awesome musical achievement. Also this put Leland on my radar! Thanks for sharing! I’d never have dreamed I’d get to see this live...👊🎉🍾🥂

[@zoodidwa]

One of my all time favorites. Just a great experience of a song.

[@CammieInOz]

Gone but never forgotten. Billy Thorpe = Aussie legend! 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺

[@morgana357]

I was THERE at this concert. I went out of curiosity, not expecting awesomeness. I was really surprised how good it was. SMU's McFarlin was a great theater venue for a concert back in the day. I also saw Johnny WInter & Richie Blackmore's Rainbow there. It's where Pink Floyd did their Dark Side tour a few years earlier. Sorry I missed that one.

[@yevetterich1921]

LOVE THIS I CAN REMEMBER DANCING TO IT . BACK IN THE 79,

[@marksellers4104]

I just stumbled upon this. I WAS AT THIS CONCERT WITH 2 BEST BUDDIES! Not long after this, Elton John toured with same bass player .... saw him at SMU basketball stadium as well. (same college campus as McFarlin Auditorium).

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

3000 Capacity (McFarlin Auditorium) , according to the Website. If this Concert did not sell out, i would be disappointed. Hope everybody, there, received their Money's worth. Same goes, for Sir Elton John's Concert.

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 Sir, fuck him.

[@pessimisticpianist582]

Look on, did I notice twice, emphasis.

[@kennethplace6323]

Shame this isn't available to Classic Rock listeners anymore. So sad this and others are becoming lost classics.

[@mickeypetty2410]

Love listening to this up loud in my car.

[@markmilewski8289]

When I was a kid and this first came out my friend Ted and I would ride around in his Thunderbird and it had a factory 8-track in it and we would put in Children Of The Sun and smoke some weed and I swear if you looked out the corner of your eye you could see the band playing in the backseat I loved it still do thank you Billy

[@kathymartin7724]

Driving on the interstate at night listening to this at night is great. Rest in peace Billy Thorpe.

[@xsamitt]

BIlly Thorpe and Walter Rossi Are the Holy Grail for me!!!!

[@Fritter70]

Song is so epic, one hit is all he needed. Done.

[@RobertNicholson]

One hit in the US. This was about his 4th reinvention. The teen idol, the caberet singer, the hard rocker then this spaceman thing. He had tons of hits before this. He's still often played on Aussie radio but we never hear this song.

[@wayneelliott7011]

Bill's Single from 1971 with The Aztecs the proggy "The Dawn Song" was the precursor to the Children Of The Sun concept. Had the Great "Time To Live" on the B-Side.

[@herbertepp7936]

Best I'ver ever seen from these times!

[@Deizulh]

How this performance doesn't have millions of views is beyond me. "Criminally underrated" is an understatement! Tremendous power trio!

[@redfishradical]

So what do you get when you mix: wildly far thinking creative song writer, ridiculously addictive melody lines, progressive dynamics for DAYS, and absolute top tier musicianship? Billy Thorpe’s timeless classic of a project, CHILDREN OF THE SUN!!!

[@johnnyrock978]

Wow, i have been looking for this song Children of the sun video for almost 40 years .

[@markmilewski8289]

I'm glad you arrived here before you passed away I think God blessed you

[@xsamitt]

Eat your heart out Vai and Satch!.....This is brilliance beyond!!!!

[@MrSadsack56]

thank You Robert for the upload.. imagine lee sklar in a heavy metal band lol

[@markmilewski8289]

So are you saying Billy Thorpe was a heavy metal band? I'm not arguing I'm just wondering?

[@lupcokotevski2907]

Lee Sklar is posting almost daily vids during COVID 19 on his channel, and playing his bass lines of various songs.

[@kurtkensson2059]

Someone recently asked him to do 'Children of the Sun' but Lee said he wouldn't, because Billy wasn't here anymore. He said he might talk about recording the song, and what it was like to play it live. I hope he does. I always liked that song, and I had no idea Lee Sklar played bass on it.

[@gavinpaterson1853]

He just did it

[@kurtkensson2059]

@@gavinpaterson1853 Thanks!

[@markmilewski8289]

I'm so glad to hear that rock isn't dead is it? Not as long as I'm alive anyways me and a die-hard bassist thank you God and Ozzy!

[@markmilewski8289]

@@kurtkensson2059 I love the respect for Billy he shows Billy Thorpe and Tommy Bolin are my Godfathers of Rock and they will never die in my heart

[@markmilewski8289]

Billy had a long career before children of the sun came out Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs Rocked in the 60s

[@markmilewski8289]

@Warren552011 can't really say as I ever heard that but it sounds like something Billy would do because he was a pretty free-spirited type of dude but I can't hardly imagine being at a concert where you couldn't say fuck on stage hell Jim exposed himself in Florida and nowadays you might get Marilyn Manson jack it off on stage nothing surprises me though

[@markmilewski8289]

@Warren552011 and I thought I was feeling old I don't think I even remember 6 9 although gives me a warm feeling when I think about it LOL

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@@markmilewski8289 Marilyn or whatever he 8s called pray for the satanic non talent.

[@ronniewood9843]

Still love it

[@bhuvidya]

Billy Thorpe, and the Aztecs, were so fkn good

[@billbarton63]

If I remember correctly Billy Thorpe was back in Dallas later that year, performing at the Cotton Bowl for “The Last Concert of the Last Weekend of the Last Summer of the Seventies" Concert. Several bands played including Foghat and Rush.

[@rnchensley]

i think that was the one they had to practically stand him up ! (i do remember that, i just don't remember who all played that day)

[@billbarton63]

I saw Thin Lizzy there in 1980. One of the best concerts ever.

[@Queenmarie88]

Bill B They were such a tight band.

[@debbieanderson8461]

Great song!

[@michaelmixon2479]

I love this song!

[@tonepoet]

When I first heard this, I thought it was a black dude singing. This guy has more soul than the average rock singer, beyond his time. I love this album, blew my mind as little kid.

[@endeavouringit]

check him out here kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2eVmJymZ8ecjdU

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@@endeavouringit you tube says no show. Bastard crim8nals.

[@samuelm7782]

Thanks, I hadn't heard much from this artist-worth a second look posthumously.

[@endeavouringit]

check him out here, best version, in my opinion, just brilliant kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2eVmJymZ8ecjdU

[@tednugentlives]

Great video. You can tell song was new and they didnt rehearse much live. Billy and Lee are both using head nodding cues alot at the 2st verse change 3:06, and bridge start 5:47. The spot light operator is lost as well.

[@Queenmarie88]

tednugentlives I noticed the spotlight part now I have to go back and watch for the other lol. I think they pulled it off though don’t you ? He sings it really well.

[@waynemulhearn6656]

When Billy Thorpe was a teenager he had a Number 1 song on the Australian Charts in the 60's in front of the Beatles , John Lennon asked to meet Billy when the Beatles came to Australia ,

[@pessimisticpianist582]

Beatles bullshit.

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

Won't "The Aztecs" be surprised.

[@reedbender1179]

@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 🤔🎯

[@grossberger666]

I am going to start a religion around this dude!

[@thrillhill9925]

Love the hair!!!!

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

Lee Sklar: Bass Solo @ Fifty9:Twenty5 Gil "Ratman" Matthews: Drum Solo @ 1:Thirteen:3Five

[@andrewmichaelsmith9713]

But what song is it that Lee solos on/after?!? Sklar himself can't remember

[@georgespottiswood4660]

Is the GREAT "LEE SKLAR" on bass?

[@samsides3449]

Yes it is!! Also played on the original album version!

[@allendean9807]

Check out his KZbin channel. He’s awesome

[@glyphs3]

Wish the camera focused a bit more on Lee, especially the bass solo.

[@mattwuxx3888]

Billy plays guitar ike Beck and Knopfler: No pick and letting the finger contact with the strings fully resonate,. Which really informs his avante garde music/songwriting. He was more of a 60's artist like Randy California, Eric Burdon or The Beatles, who somehow reached into some cosmic/metaphysical wellspring of futuristic creativity/inspiration in making the "Children Of The Sun" LP. He got some FM airplay in the U.S/UK with guys like Jim Ladd/Peel other "high"-minded DJ's gave Billy his due presciently but sparingly. But he was never appreciated or understood the way he should have been.

[@wlsnpndrvs8593]

I used to take the children of the sun record to music stores and blow the employees minds 1979

[@underwoodsfamilyalbum5801]

Sounds like Bill and Teds excellent adventure! I believe this song was on that “Heavy Metal” cartoon.

[@StudioMod]

fuck this is as underrated as it gets

[@Mach19760]

Billy had soul!

[@jimdartouzos2127]

Fucking Awesome

[@leighcecil3322]

Hardly got any air play in Australia.... typical... with good sound engineering/mixing.,.. good stuff

[@OsageRevival]

Puff’n Billy

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@Warren552011 code much.

[@Deathtoyou4ever7788]

Thumpin' Pig @@pessimisticpianist582

[@chriswinslow6843]

nice

[@arkistriph1]

Anybody know what kind of bridge Billy has on that Les Paul? I thought maybe a Bigsby but I can't really tell.

[@edb6690]

I always thought Billy Squire did this, it sounds like his genre.

[@developmentman1]

I thought the same thing for years!!! Voice sounds the same and the guitar tone is exactly Billy Squier.

[@pessimisticpianist582]

@@developmentman1 mad hatters

[@pessimisticpianist582]

That organ.

[@chewym2007]

ooh poo pa doo a great song listen to the version on the aztecs live at sunbury album with 40000 people singing

[@swinetrek]

Set list and time stamps please.

[@roberttravers5286]

Moody Coliseum

[@markmilewski8289]

Sorry I don't always correct my text to speech

[@kaindog100]

None better than Thorpie

[@doggod07]

How do I get a copy of this?

[@obfuscated3090]

This free open source goody gets the job done on Linux, Windows and OS X. rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

[@martinwnaylor5219]

Why can't I

[@thhomasmarks]

The general consensus was by far, "a forgettable performance."

[@reedbender1179]

I forget,🥱which Army does General Consensus lead ?🙄

[@noeldorch6681]

No one worships Summer School.

[@noeldorch6681]

Colombian Gold

[@noeldorch6681]

Jacksonville, Ar. 1979

[@noeldorch6681]

No one blames Bobby

[@noeldorch6681]

Culltrain.

[@noeldorch6681]

If you don't abuse it you lose it.

[@Barrelsmoke]

Great song, I also liked...........well...........oh, that's right this is his only song.

[@mickwest4790]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqWtomhsmNWSms0 Been around a long time has Thorpie, brilliant live

[@markmilewski8289]

Check out Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs

[@billbarton63]

This album was really good

[@markmilewski8289]

Wrong you're just uninformed

[@markmilewski8289]

@Warren552011 well no one can be as well-versed in all knowing as you seem to be I mean if we were you wouldn't feel special

[@allen1755]

Did he see God